Near Field Communication (NFC) technology is predicted to be included in mass-market mobile devices in the coming years and will enable new application services like payment and ticketing in mobile devices. NFC uses short-range RFID technologies, typically at 13.56 MHz, and contactless card technologies such as Mifare.
One example of how NFC can be used is to allow users to read a tag with a mobile terminal, whereby the mobile terminal retrieves content associated with the tag. Alternatively, interaction with a server from the mobile terminal can be triggered by a simple tag reading.
The tags are hence deployed in various locations, and can typically also be deployed outdoors, where tags could get vandalised. Wear and tear can also cause tags to malfunction.
There are no satisfactory solutions for discovering that a tag is malfunctioning or has been vandalised other than physically verifying the functionality of each tag.
Consequently, there is a pressing need for an efficient solution on how to monitor tags.